Information / Electronics & Computing

Digital Logic Circuits (Shannon)

In 1937 Claude Shannon showed that Boole's true/false algebra describes on/off switches exactly, so engineers could design and simplify computer circuits with maths instead of trial and error.

Shannon wrote this as his master's thesis at MIT in 1937; it was published in 1938. He proved that Boolean algebra can simplify the relay circuits (electric switches) of automatic telephone exchanges, and that relay circuits can in turn solve logic problems. Before that, logic circuits were designed ad hoc, as in Konrad Zuse's Z1. Every later computer, from relay and tube machines to today's chips, has its logic laid out with this switching algebra.